


Persephone

by Lark_Windflight



Series: Claiming [1]
Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Dark, Fae & Fairies, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-09
Updated: 2013-05-09
Packaged: 2017-12-10 22:24:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/790873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lark_Windflight/pseuds/Lark_Windflight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sarah thought that when she defeated the Goblin King andleft the Labyrinth that she was done for good. Unfortunately for her, she wasn't. And the Labyrinth always comes back to claim what belongs it it...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Persephone

Persephone

 

It started slowly, which was maybe why she didn’t notice it at first, or maybe she was still lost in the euphoria of having bested the fae King. Whatever it was, it was two months before she began to notice.

It was just little things, at first. Her friends forgetting to call her for an impromptu party, her teacher forgetting her assignment back home, but then it grew to larger things; her father forgetting to pick her up after her drama club, the drama club member themselves forgetting their rising star actress.

She had even caught Toby giving her the look he only gave when meeting strangers. The show stopper, though, was when her father forgot to do anything for her birthday.              

Never before had he forgotten it, even after her mother left. Especially after her mother had left.

The day after, her father and step-mother had left her alone in the house after dropping Toby off at a babysitter’s house. Left alone, Sarah wandered the darkened halls of the house, feeling like a stranger in the house she had grown up in.

Chance led her to her half-brothers room, the only illumination a forgotten nightlight, with barely a thought she turned it off. No need to waste light for someone who wasn’t there.

The room plunged into sudden darkness.

The only source of light coming from the moon-filled window; shadows of colourful stickers stuck to the window twisted into a mockery of their former selves on the coarse carpet. Mini crescent-moons turned to wicked sickles, chubby stars became sharp, with deadly edges. The only thing that looked normal was the owl.

Except, the windows shouldn’t have owls. After her adventures, Sarah had developed a healthy disliked of the raptors and had evicted any trace of them from the house. To the confusion of her family. The door behind her slammed shut of its own accord and she spun around to try and open it.

Then she heard it. Something was batting against the window.

She slowly turned around in time to see the wind blast open the sturdy, baby-proofed windows with a thunderous roar, whipping her long hair across her face, giving her only a glimpse as a Barn Owl grew into the man that had haunted her daydreams and nightmares.

“Hello, Sarah,” whispered the blond-haired fae. “So lovely to see you again, my dear. Have you been well?”

“I am not,” snarled Sarah, back straight and proud, “your dear anything!”

They stared at each other, neither one backing down. After a seeming eternity, Sarah relented first.

“What,” she breathed, smelling in the cinnamon and spice odor she had first smelled when the Goblin King had taken her baby brother, “are you doing here? There’s no one here but me and I certainly didn’t summon you. I already beat your labyrinth and you have no power over me –here or anywhere else!”

“Are you certain of that, precious?” The fae King inquired, innocently juggling glass balls, all the while keeping his mismatched eyes on the young woman in front of him, never wavering, even as she glanced around the room for a means of defense.

“Yes.” She responded, voice as strong as steel. She frowned though, when the Goblin King snickered to himself.

“You still haven’t answered my question, though, precious.” Stated the King, finally losing interest in their staring contest and began to wonder around the room. “Have you been well?”

“Of-of course I have!” Stuttered Sarah, wondering where her enemy was going with this. The Jareth she remembered hadn’t been one for small talk. “Everything is going perfectly fine!” She finished confidently.

“Oh? They are, are they?” Jareth asked, looking into the empty baby crib with his back to Sarah. “Everything is fine with your own friends and family barely acknowledging your existence? Methinks you need to work on your definition of wellness, precious.”

“It’s you! You’ve done something to them, haven’t you?” Sarah demanded, breathing heavily as she stalked towards him. “You couldn’t work your magic on me so you’ve targeted my friends! Stop it! Stop it right now!”

“But I can’t, Sarah,” replied the King, now looking at the knickknacks that littered the dresser. “I’m not the one leaking the spell.” Sarah blinked and suddenly he was right in front of her, causing her to jump back with a small screech. “The spell is coming from you, dear Sarah. If you are to lay the blame on someone, then lay it on yourself!”

“Wh-what?” She asked eyes wide and mind wheeling. “How? You have no power over me!”

She didn’t react when a pair of hands found themselves gently grasping her arms and a heat source hovering at her back, her mind chugging slowly through the fog of shock.

“That is _Where_ , precious. And _Why_. To answer _How_ , well, do you remember when Hogwarts-“

“Hoggle!”

“Whatever,” drawled the King, as he slowly backed away from the girl and circled her as a bored predator did its prey. “As I was saying, you do remember when your so-called _friend_ ” making the word friend sound like a slur, “betrayed you and gave you that peach?”

“..Yes...” lied a hesitant Sarah. Truthfully, she didn’t remember much of that part of the labyrinth. Between the first bite of the fruit and waking up in that dump, all she could remember was a thick haze of white and shattered windows.

Jareth smiled knowingly, which Sarah ignored; she knew he was only trying to goad her. She would not fall for it.

“The enchantment cast on the fruit was not as broken as you had assumed. Your body had already woven the spell into the very fiber of your being. In your pitiful attempt, you only managed to re-direct the effects of the spell.”

“So you’re saying that instead of me forgetting my friends, my friends forgot about me?”

“Precisely, pet,” intoned Jareth as he glided the crystal ball that had not been there a second ago. “I do believe you are catching on rather quickly, for once.” The fae king smiled wickedly. “Or perhaps not.”

“Then make it go away!” Sarah demanded. “I beat you once fair and square! I can do it again, if need be!”

Jareth gave her a smile that would have better suited a Mamba.

“And so you have defeated me, kitten. But remind me; has it been so long in the human world that you have forgotten the details of our last encounter? You wound me, darling.”

“Forget? How could I forget all the cheating and lying and tricking you did? Of course I remember how I defeated you.”

“Then that answers your question, does it not?” Somehow, Jareth now had two crystal balls weaving between his fingers. “As you said; I have no power over you. I can no more cast spells or disenchaments over you than you can fly to the moon.”

“Then how do I fix this?” Pleaded Sarah, the frustration clear in her voice. 

“That, poppet, is not my problem. You were the one that changed the nature of the enchantment, not I.”

“Then why are you even here? I thought that you could only leave the Labyrinth when someone called upon the Goblin King?”  Sarah asked, trying to get the Fae king to reveal something about the nature of his magic that she could use to break the spell.

A third crystal ball appeared and joined the first two. Jareth didn’t even bother to look at them, instead focusing his attention on her. Somewhere, deep inside, the  part of her that every human had that still remembered the feeling of living wild and avoiding predators with sharp teeth and sharper wits, shivered and screeched that it was time to leave. _Now_.

It had never been a part of her that Sarah ever listened to.

Jareth spared a glance at the orbs dancing joyfully around his fingertips, so lightening quick that Sarah, had she not been looking for such a sign, probably would not have seen it.

“Oh, I have my ways.”

“I’m sure you do, now answer my first question! What are you doing here? Contrary to popular belief, being stalked is not at all a good way make nice with people.”

“It isn’t? Dear me, and I thought I had caught up with the drivel you humans call modern literature.” The spinning orbs twirled thoughtfully around long fingers. “Tis a pity humans abandoned the old ways, there was never anything better than a heroic poem.”

“Somehow I get the feeling that you aren’t here to debate _The Faerie Queene_ VS _Twilight_. And stop avoiding my questions, Goblin King.”

A twist of the hand and all but one of the crystal orbs vanished from the Fae kings hand.

“You are quite right my dear, I am not hear to point out how the mighty have fallen. Rather, your merry little band has been rather… _adamant_ … that I find a way to remove the enchantment placed upon you. The one with the faint-hearted dog in particular.”

“Sir Didymus?”

“Yes,” drawled the king. “He may have been especially bothersome with the victor not being punished.”

Sarah hesitated, on the one hand, it was great that her Labyrinthine friends had not forgotten her as her friends and family here had, but on the other…

“Then why are you here and not they? Surely they can do as good as job as you can.”

Though he still looked the same, it seemed to Sarah that the Fae kings smile gained a wicked edge.

“Your…friends… are many things, Pet, but magically inclined is not among their…diverse talents.”

“Alright, say I believe you, why should I trust you? You’ve lied and cheated before.”

“What makes you say that? I gave you thirteen hours to complete the trial, did I not? You also got your brother back, none the worse for wear.”

“You did not give me thirteen hours! You kept on taking some away! And, in case you forgot, you kept on interfering.”

“Ah, to be young and so naïve! Child, you were given thirteen hours. You never asked not to have them taken away,” Sarah blinked and suddenly Jareth face was inches from hers. “And as for interfering, what sort of king would let someone invade his territory without trying to stop them? I’m sure the annals of your mortal history are filled with great and powerful kings that did nothing while an enemy invaded his lands.

“Do you not know your own mythology, child? The fae can do many things, but breaking promises is not among them. To break a promise made is to break ones very being.”

Sarah was half tempted to punch that smug smirk off his face.

“Fine, I guess that means I have to be careful about what I say, then.”

Jareth, still too close for Sarah’s comfort, said nothing.

Straightening her back, which had been bent backwards in an attempt to avoid the looming Fae king who did not know the meaning of ‘personal space’ (not retreating, never retreating, just getting some breathing room!), she starred into his mismatched eyes.

“And what, pray tell, are you proposing you can do to fix the situation, which, I might add, is your fault for tricking me?”

Jareth finally backed out of Sarah’s remaining personal space, crystal orb firmly held in his grasp.

“Well, Precious, what I propose is simple. Even if the targets of the enchantment has changed, it still remains a simple Forget-Me-Knot, easily undone by someone with some small talent in the arcane arts –and my abilities are anything but small – and then return you to where to where you belong. Safe and sound, no less.”

“And what’s the price? Even I know that your kind always demands something in return. Equivalent exchange or something like that?

“’Something like that’, my dear. And don’t you worry about a price; it has already been paid. Once you are free of this pesky enchantment, your friends will finally leave me in peace.”

“Just like that? No promises of pain and eternal torment? You’re just going to remove the spell and let me go home? You’re not going to trick me and send me to the Swamp of Eternal Stench?”

“Why ever would I do that, Pet? You won, fair and square. I’m just here to clean up some of the mess from the Labyrinth and take you to where you belong.”

Sarah took a good look at the Goblin King, standing arrogantly in his fine regalia, as he had been apt to do during her trial, crystal orb flowing from one hand to another without supervision of its handler.

“Fine, what do you want me to do?”

Jareth held the crystal ball by the tips of his fingers in front of her.

“I want you, Sarah, to give me permission to work my magic on you. As you said earlier, I have no power over you; unless you, of your own free will, say otherwise. Contact with the sphere would also be a great help. The enchantment is not very strong, but it is finely woven throughout your body.”

“Alright,” sighed Sarah, reaching out and, careful to avoid the Fae Kings fingers, placed her fingers over the orb. At once, she felt a tingling sensation spread from her fingers to the rest of her body, until she was sure that every hair on her body was standing on end. “Do what you must to remove the spell and keep your end of the bargain.”

“But of course, Pet. Now: close your eyes, breathe deeply, and let me work.”

She did as she was bid and breathed.

Slowly she felt a chill in her finger tips, gently replacing the tingling sensation. Instead of spreading across her body, she felt a tendril slowly snake it way over her arm and around her neck before it rose up under her chin and caressed her lips.

“What are you doing?” Sarah tried to scream, but it came out in barely a whisper. She tried to open her eyes, but found herself unable to move, or do anything besides stand calmly a breath.

“I’m just doing what you asked me to, my darling. You ingested the spell through your mouth, is it not normal that I start there? Now, keep calm, this won’t take much longer. You’ll soon be where you belong.”

Against her will, her heart slowed to match her breathing and her thoughts stopped racing as the icy tendril entered her mouth and split. One branch slithered its way to the pit of her stomach, while its twin tickled the roof of her mouth and snaked its way to her spine. Instantly, Sarah felt all her limbs go rag-doll loose, as if she was a puppet whose strings had been cut.

She tried to scream, but all that came out was an echo of a whisper.

“Shush, Pet. Almost done. It won’t be long, I promise you.” Came Jareth’s whisper. She could feel him at her side, though she had not heard him move. She felt the arm not holding the orb wrap around her waist and gently lower her to the ground as her legs lowered her body to the ground without permission.

What, she screamed in her head, is going on?

“Only what must be done, my dear.” Whispered Jareth (since when was he Jareth and not Fae or Goblin king, as quickly fading part of her wondered before it fell silent) in her ear as he placed her head against his chest. “You left a giant mess in the Labyrinths magic when you left.”

But, she thought, you promised to undo the enchantment and bring me home!

She should have shuddered when she felt his free hand gently pet her, but she didn’t, couldn’t.

“Oh, Precious, have you really learnt nothing? I am removing the spell, just as I promised. I am also bringing you where you belong. I never said that was all I would do or that I was bringing you to your home.” The cold chill withdrew from her body and her hand fell away from the orb.

With her eyes closed, she did not see Jareth open a portal to the Labyrinth that would allow her human body to pass undamaged, but she did feel a hot and humid breeze that did not belong to her winter-bound home. She could do nothing as the Goblin King lifted her limp body and brought her to the castle beyond the Goblin City.

But she swore to herself, that she would not let it end here. She had escaped him once, she would do so again. She hoped.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: While it’s been a while since I’ve seen Labyrinth, what I said about Jareth is quite true. He did promise her 13 hours, but not a word about not taking some away. 
> 
> And in mythology, very few Fae are very fair. In one legend, a Leprechaun, after being caught by a mortal, promises that his pot of gold will be hidden underneath a four-leaf clover identified with a ribbon, when the mortal that caught him didn’t have a wheelbarrow to bring the gold home. He makes the Fae promise to leave the gold there. When the mortal comes back, the entire field is covered in four-leaf clovers each one with, if you followed along, a ribbon! He never promised to wrap only one clover!


End file.
